You can’t swing a comatose cat here in the Albuquerque–Santa Fe corridor without hitting a fine musician. They’re everywhere, as I’ve discovered in my coverage of the local music scene over the last 15 years or so for Albuquerque The Magazine and other publications. Three of these fine musical artists, known collectively as the Bobcats Trio, have released their debut album, Music for the Sole, and it’s a welcome addition.
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A 2008 residency at the MacDowell Colony, an artist retreat, in New Hampshire put pianist/composer Diane Moser in touch with avian composers with whom she engaged in a musical give-and-take, responding on the piano to their birdsongs in back-and-forth improvisations that she recorded. In the evening, she’d transcribe these sessions, and over the years, she has performed these tunes in a wide variety of styles, from acoustic to electronic, solo piano to big band. Since 2013, she has been playing them in a trio setting with Anton Denner (flute, piccolo) and Ken Filiano (bass). Birdsongs, her latest release, features performances from this remarkably synched trio and on solo piano that carry the invigorating scent of the New England woodlands.
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The photos above of pianist/composer Brittany Anjou and trumpeter/composer Ralph Alessi may be still black-and-white shots, but the music on their new releases is in Technicolor and Panavision—and moving.
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Since 2008, Jorge Francisco Castillo, a musician and retired librarian, has presented the Fandango Fronterizo, a celebratory jam session that brings together son jarocho musicians on both sides of the border separating Tijuana and San Diego. The idea is that music creates community despite separation, and son jarocho, a folk music born in Veracruz with a revolutionary pedigree, offers the perfect vehicle. When pianist, composer, band leader, educator, and activist Arturo O’Farrill learned about this annual event, he felt it provided an elegant opportunity to bring together a variety of cultures to make a musical statement of global community in response to the divisive cultural and political currents abroad in the world today. Working with Castillo and his own longtime producer, GRAMMY-winning Kabir Sehgal, O’Farrill brought together his Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra with son jarocho musicians, internationally renowned jazz artists, and musicians from marginalized countries at the 11th annual Fandango. The result is a cornucopia of vibrant musics energized by a common purpose. Continue reading
A flood of recent releases is clogging up my in-box. Here are a few quick takes to get things moving again. Continue reading